Run > Race

Valencia Marathon 2018 3:48:02 PB 
The day before this race and the morning the legs especially back of lower hamstrings did not feel good, it must have been Taper madness.
Woke at 5.30 nice and calm, had around 5 hours solid sleep that night and a further 3 during the day. Felt good enough. All kit was prepared from previous night, 1 beer the previous night final food was before 5pm. Took my time getting ready had a coffee and a banana.
Walked to start and bathroom consisted of number 1 no number 2 available.
Started at back of pen, no crush. Knees as above felt sore, START a lot of bodies but flowed well, tempted to drive put held back and 1st mile was comfy enough than just took from there.

Gels PB Hydro at 3,6,9,13,16,20,22 and 2 PB Electrolyte Tabs in course water bottles at 3 and 6
No bonk, so nutri seems to have worked, maybe able to spread to a 4 mile spli?… just sips of water so hydration good. Most water went over head to keep cool. This practice had a positive effect I feel. Fit belt worked really well so happy with that. Shoes were comfy if a bit unresponsive but at no stage were feet sore. At no stage did I attempt to really push, even at the end. Was always thinking of holding back and not using up reserve so I could finish strong. This could be adapted as could have possibly pushed a bit after hallway stage 5 miles out when I concluded that 3.45 was not feasible I tended to coast in. Even though the last mile was my fastest. Did feel tired circa mile 24, 25 but that was to be expected. Brain was a bit foggy but drove through and before I knew there was only 900m to go  HR climbed steadily as expected, heat which finished at 25-26C had some impact on this.
All in all preparation was good and the result was great, maybe 1-2 of long runs should go to 22??/.Medium runs done slightly faster with more tempo stuff. Next target should be sub 3.40 if not 3.30. Need to do maybe 16 weeks as opposed to 12 week program bit this race was a real confidence booster, why not? It was a PB! Bring it on!

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1) 1m - 9:06(9:06/m) 124/132bpm 96cal 6.59/7.03mph
2) 1m - 8:38(8:38/m) 133/137bpm 100cal 6.94/7.26mph
3) 1m - 8:48(8:48/m) 134/140bpm 101cal 6.82/7.22mph
4) 1m - 8:44(8:44/m) 136/142bpm 101cal 6.87/7.64mph
5) 1m - 8:48(8:48/m) 138/143bpm 101cal 6.82/7.2mph
6) 1m - 8:39(8:39/m) 138/142bpm 96cal 6.94/7.14mph
7) 1m - 8:40(8:40/m) 141/147bpm 102cal 6.93/7.37mph
8) 1m - 8:31(8:31/m) 141/147bpm 98cal 7.04/7.43mph
9) 1m - 8:45(8:45/m) 141/145bpm 98cal 6.86/7.33mph
10) 1m - 8:41(8:41/m) 140/144bpm 90cal 6.91/7.16mph
11) 1m - 8:35(8:35/m) 140/143bpm 83cal 6.98/7.16mph
12) 1m - 8:43(8:43/m) 137/141bpm 68cal 6.88/7.18mph
13) 1m - 8:39(8:39/m) 141/161bpm 81cal 6.94/7.28mph
14) 1m - 8:43(8:43/m) 141/146bpm 82cal 6.89/7.2mph
15) 1m - 8:30(8:30/m) 143/147bpm 84cal 7.05/7.14mph
16) 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) 146/153bpm 95cal 7.01/7.41mph
17) 1m - 8:37(8:37/m) 146/150bpm 94cal 6.96/7.14mph
18) 1m - 8:27(8:27/m) 150/156bpm 102cal 7.1/7.62mph
19) 1m - 8:33(8:33/m) 152/155bpm 107cal 7.02/7.62mph
20) 1m - 8:39(8:39/m) 149/153bpm 99cal 6.93/7.58mph
21) 1m - 8:35(8:35/m) 153/159bpm 109cal 6.98/7.37mph
22) 1m - 8:31(8:31/m) 154/157bpm 109cal 7.04/7.26mph
23) 1m - 8:30(8:30/m) 155/158bpm 108cal 7.06/7.31mph
24) 1m - 8:44(8:44/m) 155/158bpm 114cal 6.86/7.24mph
25) 1m - 8:27(8:27/m) 157/161bpm 113cal 7.11/8.1mph
26) 1m - 8:23(8:23/m) 159/175bpm 114cal 7.16/7.76mph
27) 0.4m - 3:30(8:46/m) 161/167bpm 48cal 6.84/8.35mph